1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to industrial pedestrian control gates and fences as used in metro-stations, and more particularly to hollow, cylindrical, floor mounting gate posts with closing dampeners that allow the gate to hinge on an axis coaxial to the post.
2. Description of Related Art
Train, airline, bus, and other transportation stations all employ gates and turnstiles to control and secure various areas. These gates very often have to be able to swing both ways, and some also need to be able to latch securely.
Station agents in secure booths often need to be able to unlock the gates briefly to let authorized riders and ticketholders through. Very often the way this is done in conventional systems is to use an electro-mechanical lock mechanism at the gate with wires buried in the ground or installed in the floors and walls connected to a control switch in the secure booth.
Such lock systems must survive energetic efforts by criminals to kick the gates down, and still be failsafe in the event of a power failure. The gates must unlatch when power is lost so as to not trap people from escape. David Dudley describes such a locking mechanism for a bi-swing train station gate in U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,729, issued May 29, 2012, titled TRAPLOCK FOR BI-SWING GATE (Dudley '729).
Conventional gate and post construction used throughout America are difficult and expensive to manufacture, install, operate, and maintain. What is needed is a gate system with a post mechanism that is easy and inexpensive to manufacture, install, operate, and maintain. One key to all of this is the elimination of external hinges.